Dusk
by Shima Ame
Summary: AkuRoku::Oneshot::It’s not love, it’s not carnal... “It’s just the memory of love.”


**Gah... I can't SLEEP tonight. So, to try to sleep, I tried to think of some cute little AkuRoku things. And this one was just so... awww... so here it is. **

Note: This is only based off of the first line. It's what I wish had happened at this point of the game.

Demmy: Ame does not own any part of KH. If she did, then she wouldn't be mad about being forced to do things she doesn't want to. AKA: Hate Axel. Trust Riku. Follow Namine instead of Hayner. Not hug Seifer. Kill Xemnas. Kill me. Become Sora.

* * *

"You really do remember me this time? I'm SO FLATTERED. But you're too late!"

_'I might not have a heart, but I can remember it breaking.'_

"But- Axel!" Roxas cried, throwing himself between the two spinning wheels of fire and into the man's chest. "I'm sorry! This world, these friends... it's not my fault!"

"Don't try this with me, Roxas!" The elder gave the boy a quick smack in the head, sending him with a loud sickening thud to the ground.

The boy started to sob.

"Don't start! Don't you even PRETEND to have a heart, now!" The man was still deeply hurt, fighting his urge to pick the bundle up and cradle him, tell him that it was all ok. He stood to tower over him.

"But... Axel..." The sapphires stared up at him. Innocent and guilty at the same time. "We're different because we _remember_ how it feels to _have_ hearts. and I... I remember..." His child-like hands pawed at the hem of Axel's cloak, finding a leg to lean on. His eyes refound their steady connection. "I remember how much it hurts... to have a heart."

"No... you can't remember how much it hurts. How much it hurts when your... best friend... doesn't remember who you are. Tricks you. Tries to kill you."

"I'm sorry..." He sobbed into the man's leg. "I..." But he found himself placed together and lifted like a collection of shattered fragile glass- maybe that's what nobodies were, just discarded shards of shattered beings- into the arms of the cloaked man.

"Roxas." He looked up to see the smiling eyes of sea foam. "Don't cry. You look ridiculous. Your cheeks are always that rosy color anyway, you don't need to nurse them pinker." Not that the phrase made Roxas' cheeks any paler with the blush they brought on. "Come on, let's get out of here before he spots me."

"So THERE you are, you nasty glitch." Came the wise voice. "Roxas, get away from there. It seems that Namine has made... a few errors in repairing your memories."

"Roxas, hold on, I'll take care of this." Axel growled, sliding Roxas to the ground behind him and gripping his wheels again.

"No, Axel, it's no use, you know that! You can't hurt him from here! Let's just get out of here while we can!"

"But he-"

"Roxas!" Diz warned.

"Come on!" Roxas grabbed at Axel's wrist, trying to escape through the darkness.

"Roxas, that isn't going to work here." The dictator warned only after the boy had been repelled.

"What do you want from me!" He growled in return.

"We want Sora. We need him to come back."

"Sora again. What's so great about Sora! And why do you need me!"

"Sora's keyblade-"

"I have the keyblade too, so what does it matter!"

"The keyblade's wielder must have a strong heart!" Diz hissed, annoyed at being interrupted. "And you, Roxas, have no heart!"

"Then why can I wield it at all!"

"Because you are half of Sora! Now stop this, I've already given too much away! Come back with me now or I will take you by force!"

"Go ahead and try." Axel dared, stepping between the two.

"Axel!" Roxas tried to protest.

"Shut up! I tried hard enough to find you after they sent you here. I've searched long enough! I'm not giving you up now! Especially not to be used as a tool by these scum!"

Diz shook his head. "Axel, you do not understand the severity of the situation. Don't act on feelings that you pretend to have. You have no heart. You are nothing, _nobody_. Don't be a fool. As for you, Roxas. I am offering you everything that Axel can not, that he does not have. A heart, a feeling, a _somebody_. Think about this using the logic that you still have, apart from your feelings." Behind him loomed out from the shadows another figure dressed in black, hooded. "Can you take care of this here?"

The figure gave, in a gruff voice, a "yes" and a nod.

"Wait, no you don't!" Axel lunged for Diz as he took a step out of the dimension, his feet landing with his head in confusion. "Crud!"

"Axel, this way!" Roxas dodged in to grab his friend by the arm, pulling him out of the slice of 'Ansem's' heavy sword. "Come on, maybe if we pull together, we can get out of here!" He clutched the other's hand.

"Right."

"We're... Best friends, right?"

"Sure... but I'm not getting turned into a Dusk for.."

What was it that they would've been punished for again? What was the thing that had made him, Axel, scratch his head in such a bashful fashion?

Not that it mattered anymore.

Axel looked over, across his elbow that stuck out when he had his hands behind his head like that, to where the boy rested on the sandy beach. Blue eyes closed. Blond head held delicately in the matching grains.

Whatever that forbidden deed was, Axel was sure it was worth being turned into a dusk for at the moment. Maybe it hadn't been a few days ago. But it was now.

That's one thing he could thank Diz for, helping him realize that it was worth it. What did he have to lose in being turned into a mindless creature? Pain, misery. He would lose the feeling to love, but he wouldn't miss it if he didn't remember. The emotion was made mostly out of pain and misery anyway.

He could never lose his heart. It was safe with Roxas. Even if neither had a heart, somehow Axel just knew that his was with Roxas. Somehow. But if Roxas became a dust... that was a different story.

The sun on his face hurt. It hurt a lot. He could almost feel the skin shrivel and burn, boil, right on it's skeleton.

"Axel?"

The voice made him jump, sea foam looking warmly over to the boy who spoke with it, blue eyes still closed against the light. "Yeah?"

"Let's meet again... in the next life."

Axel gave a sharp laugh as he turned his face back into the sun. "Yeah, after I get turned into a dusk for..."

"For what?" Roxas' curiosity struck, sitting up and blinking down at the man.

"I guess it would be nothing." He shrugged. "We _are_ nobodies." _It's not love, it's not carnal..._ "It's just the memory of love."


End file.
